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Debt ceiling is key issue facing government

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The Dispatch.

The political circus in Washington was always described as a fight between Republicans and
Democrats. Nothing can be further than the truth. It is a battle of Washington, D.C., against the
American people. The D.C. in Washington no longer stands for District of Columbia; it stands for
Doesn't Care.

The actions of the Obama administration can only be described as criminal. It sent 800,000
people home, but decided to give them their back pay anyway. Only in America are people forbidden
to work, but get paid in full. This is the socialist paradise of which the left has dreamed for
decades.

Since these nonessential workers will be paid anyway, there was no need to shut parks and
monuments and cause irreparable damage to the hospitality industry that serves the parks. The loss
in gross domestic product during the so-called shutdown apparently amounted to $24 billion. The
lost federal, state and local taxes on $24 billion alone amount to billions of dollars in badly
needed tax revenue.

The broader issue of the battle in Washington is not Obamacare or the funding of the wasteful
government, but the debt ceiling. The ceiling stood at $16.7 billion before the shutdown and a day
after the ceiling was raised and the spigot was opened again, the government committed Americans to
another $380 billion.

That amounts to an additional $1,200 for each person alive in the country, bringing the total
debt load per person to $54,000.

We can only hope that some responsible congressmen will make the debt ceiling again the main
issue in the next four months, when the borrowing capacity of the government will again run
out.